UN urgently seeks $17 million to aid Liberians displaced by conflict

The United Nations has appealed to donors to provide $17 million to meet the immediate relief needs of some 65,000 Liberians displaced by the conflict in their country.

The call came from Ross Mountain, the UN Assistant Emergency Relief Coordinator, who has just returned from a three-day visit to Liberia.

According to the latest estimates, there are some 15,000 internally displaced in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, alone, and 15,000 more concentrated in the Kataka area. A UN spokesperson said today that at least 7,000 Liberians had fled to Sierra Leone and unknown numbers of refugees from Sierra Leone were returning there on their own, outside the organized repatriations carried out by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

UN agencies are currently registering internally displaced people in Monrovia and will undertake similar registration exercises in other parts of the country as soon as security allows.

Last week, following a briefing on the upsurge of violence in that country, the UN Security Council called on the Liberian Government to secure access for relief workers and humanitarian agencies to those in need. The Council also urged armed insurgents to respect human life, “particularly the lives of those trapped by the conflict.”